I know what you are saying Labradork, but I think if a person (like myself) wanted to buy a dog that had been socialised well and trained professionally to a good obedience standard, what is the problem with that? The benefits to me would be I could start advanced training straightaway, I could take on the dog knowing he was socialised and safe around children, other dogs, livestock etc without the fear of not doing a good enough job of that myself for whatever reason.

I agree that the puppy stage and training is a fun part of owning a dog to many people, but some prefer to get an older dog who is past the house-training and chewing phase - hence why many go for an older rescue dog. Regarding training, if the dog came already trained to a good basic level, it could be just as much fun taking that dog to an advanced level without having to do the fairly monotonous basic stage

I think this could be a great option for many people,. I would rather see people buy a started dog than see people struggle with a dog making more mistakes than anything else trying to train them

Now I don't think I could do it that way around. Once a pup was here, I don't think I could possibly send him away to be trained - I am far too soft

I know! That is ALOT of money ... although I don't think it will bankrupt the likes of Nigel Mansell

Please explain, as I am not sure I know what you mean, thanks

It doesn't work like that.

The same problem of people struggling and making mistakes would apply to both scenarios:

Unskilled, unqualified average pet dog owner not doing their own homework, not choosing dog's wisely, not knowing their own limitations, not learning to train dogs themselves, loosing control of dog's behaviour.

Dog training classes are not about training dogs, they are about training owners to train their dogs.

If the owner hasnt attended the class with the dog, and has no dog skills or knowledge outside of being a pet dog owner, it doesn't matter how trained the dog it is to some other person in some other location, the dog will inevitably resort to being an issue for the owner, as the training isn't maintained, and the owner, invariably, wont even realise a problem is building up.

Ive seen loads of dogs end up in rescue because of this.
In a way, it's worse than the person that got a pup and cocked up, as that person at least knows its only their doing, and therefore has the opportunity to become aware of the concept that they should have trained their dog, and should have learnt how.
Whereas, the other person already believes dogs can ready trained, so they dont need to know how to train a dog themselves, so if it goes wrong over time, its the dog's fault, not theirs.....this also helps owners buy into the concept that dogs train themselves.

So many Residential Schools tap into people's misconceptions this way, and charge hundreds for boarding training, when you can achieve the same aim much cheaper and much more effectively by going along to your local school.

(i dont mean Residential Schools that include the owners as well)

But if you were just an average member of the public (ie, not you!), then where would you suddenly have gained the skills to move your dog on to advanced training if you havent learnt the skills of basic training yourself already?

Lol! Only like sending it to school for a couple of hours a day, say once a week, I couldn't BEAR to send them away on a day/night basis for a week or similar

Its interesting to hear that loads of 'pre-trained' dogs do still end up in rescue. I'm not talking here about ones that get sent off for a few weeks to a training school (without owner), but a dog that has been well trained/socialised from puppy through to say 2-2.5 years old.

Now I agree that a total imcompetent could easily still undo all the training and I'm not for a minute saying this is the answer to everything, but I still think that in certain instances, it could have a place. For a novice owner who was prepared to learn with/from the dog (and just because it has come pre-trained, doesn't mean that you still can't go to training sessions together), would that be such a bad thing?

I wonder how many of the dog owners on here went out and got a puppy with no previous experience of a well trained dog? Personally I think all the reading/researching in the world can't prepare you for your first dog, particularly when that dog is a puppy.

There is no problem in it, I just don't see the point. I can see the point of using such a dog for specialist purposes, but for a pet? you could buy a highly trained dog from such a place but unless your handling skills are equally as good as the person/s that trained the dog, there is a good chance the dog will end up wasted.